EVENTS

Pakistan are surprise winners of ICC Champions Trophy

Pakistan has emerged the winners of the cricket tournament, notching a surprisingly easy win over India in the finals. India had clinically dispatched Bangladesh in the semi-finals, bowling them out for 264 and then reaching that total for the loss of just one wicket. In the other semi-final, Pakistan also beat England easily, reaching the target score of 212 with the loss of just two wickets.

India was the favorite to win the final, having easily beaten Pakistan in their qualifying round match and since their main rivals Australia and South Africa failed to qualify for the semi-finals. But Pakistan surprised them. Sent in to bat first by India, Pakistan reached 338 for the loss of just four wickets. This was the highest score in the tournament but was within the reach of India’s powerful batting line up who had chased higher totals in previous one-day international games. But Pakistan bowled them out for just 158, with India’s top order batting failing completely. Today’s result was the reverse of the match between the two sides in the qualifying rounds in which India emerged the easy winners, scoring 319/3 and then bundling Pakistan out for just 164.

This was an unusual tournament in that though there were many upsets, there were also very few close games.